When Words (and Pantomime) Fail

Communication is hard. We use words as our main means of communicating, but that doesn't always work. Let me give you a couple of examples.

Boardwalk

Alrica and I are in Mohammedia, Morocco. It's a city a bit east of Casablanca. It isn't exactly a suburb of Casablanca, but it is becoming one. It's one of those situations where the city of Mohammedia existed as its own place. But as Casablanca grows and people want to live near but not in the big city, they move out to other nearby cities. I think that's what is happening to Mohammedia.

The White Mosque of Mohammedia

The city has a beach on the Atlantic and a big port right beside the beach.

Does anyone know what these white birds are?

Along the beach there is a long boardwalk that is called "Le Corniche". Our landlord was explaining that we should visit it, but couldn't think of the English word for Corniche. I couldn't either, so we did a web search. The translation given was cornice, but that's an architectural feature. It made no sense. Eventually, we figured out from context that it had to mean "boardwalk."

Even signs can be hard to read. I think this means birdbath used to lure prey for snakes. Alrica disagrees.

Tacos

Picture of a "taco"

Mohammedia has outdoor shopping areas and restaurants with covered outdoor seating. Alrica and I got "tacos" but, again, the word "taco" is misleading. Let me explain. In verse.

A taco in Morocco
Isn't what we'd call a taco.
It's delicious and its neato
But in shape it's more burrito.
Though inside it's not burrito
Sure, it does have spice and meat
Only there's also fries, not teeny.
Plus it's grilled like a panini.
You should absolutely try one
If you get the chance to buy one.
Only don't expect a taco
From a taco in Morocco.

Matches

We live very near an Aswak Assalam. This is a big store, a grocery store and more. It has electronics, house goods, and clothing. It's like Target or a Walmart Supercenter in the United States. But they also serve prepared foods and there is a seating area. We ate there yesterday, though it wasn't our intention.

Those most alluring aisle in the grocery store.

We planned to cook lunch at home, but we had a problem. We have a gas stove, but it doesn't have an automatic starter in it. So you have to light it with one of those long lighters that is vaguely shaped like a rifle. Only when we turned on the gas and clicked the trigger of the lighter, nothing happened. The lighter we had was out of fuel. Well, we are nothing if not flexible.

You can buy hummus in a can

We went to Aswak Assalam both to get some lunch and to buy either a lighter or matches so that we could cook going forward. The lunch was amazing. Alrica got Asian noodles with a ginger infused soup and a shrimp egg roll. It was fantastic Asian food in Africa. I had a pasta dish which was fine, nothing spectacular.

After we had eaten, we set about the challenge of trying to find matches or a lighter. It's a big store and we were failing, so we decided to ask someone for help. Here's the thing: I don't know the word for matches in either French or Arabic. And Google translate failed me. The problem is that the English word "matches" means a lot of things:

• Wooden sticks with phosphorus on the end used to start a fire
• Pairing or couplings
• Sporting events or contests
• An opponent of nearly equal ability
• Having colors and patterns that complement one another

You see my problem. My translate app is giving me a translation of matches, but not the wooden stick with phosphorus kind. But in such times of trouble, when words fail, we can always fall back on pantomime and sound effects. So here I am trying to pantomime striking a match and trying to make the sound of it flaring to life.

It would appear that I am bad at this game. The man helping us lit up, certain he knew what we were looking for. I felt very accomplished in my pantomime abilities until we arrived at our destination, a corkscrew. He took my striking a match to mean opening a wine bottle.

It wasn't a total loss, because in the same aisle, as we were walking toward the corkscrew, we passed lighters. So we did, with a bit of luck, find our quarry.

Look at that sensuous, serpentine curves of that hydrant. Almost as alluring as the grocery aisle.

Today, as I write this, I have just finished the lunch we planned to make yesterday. So good news, we can cook! Even if we can't always communicate.